Rachael Basnett (née Hall)

Rachael Basnett was listed in the Jamaican Quit Rent books for 1754 as the owner of 160 acres of land in St Andrew. Beneficiary as tenant-for-life in the will of her husband Richard Basnett (written in 1733 and proved in 1743).

Sketch Pedigrees of some of the Early Settlers in Jamaica gives Rachel Basnett as the daughter of William Hall (d. 1699), owner of Hall's Delight. The same source gives Rachel's sister Frances as married to Dr Richard Owen and her sister Anna Maria as married to Eleazer Wignall. Her brother James, who died in 1742, married Elizabeth (surname unknown).

Rachel Basnett of St Andrew, widow. Estate probated in Jamaica in 1751. Slave-ownership at probate: 0 of whom 0 were listed as male and 0 as female. 0 were listed as boys, girls or children. Total value of estate at probate: £186.06 Jamaican currency of which £0 currency was the value of enslaved people. Estate valuation included £0 currency cash, £144 currency debts and £0 currency plate.

A List of landholders in the Island of Jamaica together with the number of acres each person possessed taken from the quit rent books in the year 1754', TNA CO 142/31 transcribed at http://www.jamaicanfamilysearch.com/Samples2/1754lead.htm; PROB 11/725/455.

Noel B. Livingston, Sketch Pedigrees of some of the Early Settlers in Jamaica. Compiled from the Records of the Court of Chancery of the Island with a list of the inhabitants in 1670 and other matters relative to the early history of the same (1909) p. 78.

Trevor Burnard, Database of Jamaican inventories, 1674-1784.

We are grateful to Charlotte Hursey for her assistance with compiling this entry.